chaos magic has (mostly) disappointed me again, except that- yeah, probably a good idea to focus on what it is I want this wasp familiar spirit to Do.

I'm gonna base the appearance of this spirit on the European paper wasp, an introduced species whose range covers both of the places I've lived in my life. consequently, it's a wasp I'm familiar with, and one I could productively take with me when I move continents (as I currently plan to do, because I don't want to stay a settler-colonialist longterm).

in terms of functionality of this familiar spirit- I kinda want the wasp to be flexible, which is to say, to have some basic, generally-applicable functions that I could apply in any given ritual or working.

but it could also have some specific/stereotyped functions, with less to do with its role as 'my familiar spirit' and more to do with the symbolism and ideas tied up with 'wasp'.

one obvious function is offense- wasps sting and are aggressive. defense is also a reasonable direction to take that- a wasp familiar could 'build a nest' which acts both as protection and as a site for clustering and defense.

I think I'll make my familiar a unique queen,...

... as, for the most part, I don't want to spread a spirit that functions like this outside of my control.

But the queen *could* produce non-reproductive workers to guard nests, wherever I site them. I'd designate, for a given nest, its defense behaviors and the conditions under which they activate.

so, if there's someone I want others to realize is unsafe, I could mark them with a nest that 'buzzes' and 'darts' (alarms others, causes them to avoid), and if I particularly disliked that person I could designate them as an enemy to attack and a source of energy/nest-building material.

on the other hand, I could place a nest on sbdy I like to protect them...